A Solution to Academic Radiology's Experience With Solicitation E-mails From Predatory Journals.

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to help academic researchers avoid predatory publishers by characterizing the problem with respect to radiology and medical imaging and to test an intervention to address aggressive e-mail solicitation. MATERIALS AND METHODS. In total, 803 faculty from 10 U.S. academic radiology departments and 193 faculty in the senior author's department were surveyed about their experiences with soliciting journals. To document the characteristics of these journals and their publishers, we retrospectively reviewed the academic institutional e-mail box of one radiologist over 51 days. Journals' bibliometric parameters were compared with those of established medical imaging journals offering open access publishing. We tested filters for selected syntax to identify spam e-mails during two time periods. RESULTS. Of 996 faculty, 206 responded (16% nationally, 42% locally). Most (98%) received e-mails from soliciting publishers. Only 7% published articles with these publishers. Submission reasons were invitations, fee waivers, and difficulty publishing elsewhere. Overall, 94 publishers sent 257 e-mails in 51 days, 50 of which offered publishing opportunities in 76 imaging journals. Six journals were indexed in PubMed, and two had verifiable impact factors. The six PubMed-indexed journals had a lower mean publication fee ($824) than top medical imaging journals ($3034) (p < 0.001) and had a shorter mean duration of existence (9.5 vs 49.0 years, respectively; p = 0.005). The e-mail filters captured 71% of soliciting e-mails during the initial 51-day period and 85% during the same period 1 year later. CONCLUSION. Soliciting publishers have little impact on scientific literature. Academicians can avoid soliciting e-mails with customized e-mail filters.

Deep learning and radiomics framework for PSMA-RADS classification of prostate cancer on PSMA PET.

BACKGROUND: Accurate classification of sites of interest on prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) images is an important diagnostic requirement for the differentiation of prostate cancer (PCa) from foci of physiologic uptake. We developed a deep learning and radiomics framework to perform lesion-level and patient-level classification on PSMA PET images of patients with PCa. METHODS: This was an IRB-approved, HIPAA-compliant, retrospective study. Lesions on [18F]DCFPyL PET/CT scans were assigned to PSMA reporting and data system (PSMA-RADS) categories and randomly partitioned into training, validation, and test sets. The framework extracted image features, radiomic features, and tissue type information from a cropped PET image slice containing a lesion and performed PSMA-RADS and PCa classification. Performance was evaluated by assessing the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). A t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) analysis was performed. Confidence and probability scores were measured. Statistical significance was determined using a two-tailed t test. RESULTS: PSMA PET scans from 267 men with PCa had 3794 lesions assigned to PSMA-RADS categories. The framework yielded AUROC values of 0.87 and 0.90 for lesion-level and patient-level PSMA-RADS classification, respectively, on the test set. The framework yielded AUROC values of 0.92 and 0.85 for lesion-level and patient-level PCa classification, respectively, on the test set. A t-SNE analysis revealed learned relationships between the PSMA-RADS categories and disease findings. Mean confidence scores reflected the expected accuracy and were significantly higher for correct predictions than for incorrect predictions (P < 0.05). Measured probability scores reflected the likelihood of PCa consistent with the PSMA-RADS framework. CONCLUSION: The framework provided lesion-level and patient-level PSMA-RADS and PCa classification on PSMA PET images. The framework was interpretable and provided confidence and probability scores that may assist physicians in making more informed clinical decisions.

Quantitative Volumetric Analysis Following Magnetic Resonance-Guided Laser Interstitial Thermal Ablation of Cerebellar Metastases.

BACKGROUND: Treating recurrent posterior fossa metastases after previous radiation therapy and surgical resection remains challenging. Magnetic resonance laser-induced thermal therapy (MR-LITT) is a promising treatment for recurrent lesions, but data on safety, efficacy, and postablation volume change in the posterior fossa are lacking. METHODS: All patients with recurrent posterior fossa metastatic lesions treated with MR-LITT by the senior neurosurgeon were included in the study. Preoperative and postoperative follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies were used to measure lesional and perilesional edema volume. These measurements were compared to calculate percent ablation volume. All patients' clinical examinations were followed closely. RESULTS: Four patients with recurrent cerebellar metastases were treated with MR-LITT. The average percent lesion ablated was 97.1% (range, 88.2%-100%). The average preoperative lesion volume was 3.3 cm3 (range, 1.1-7.2 cm3), and the average final postoperative volume was 3.8 cm3 (range, 0.5-7.6 cm3). Lesion volume increased to maximum volume on postoperative day 1, with an average increase of 486.9%. The extrapolated average time for the lesion to shrink to below the initial size was 294.5 days. There was a trend toward a decrease in average edema volume from the preoperative MRI of 17.8 cm3 to final postoperative follow-up MRI of 3.4 cm3 (P = 0.0952). No postoperative hydrocephalus or complications occurred. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study shows that LITT appears to be a safe and promising treatment for recurrent posterior fossa metastatic lesions up to 7.2 cm3. Further randomized controlled studies are warranted to further characterize the long-term efficacy of this therapy.

Descemet Membrane Thickening as a Sign for the Diagnosis of Corneal Graft Rejection: An Ex Vivo Study.

PURPOSE: To disclose, using an ex vivo study, the histopathological mechanism behind in vivo thickening of the endothelium/Descemet membrane complex (En/DM) observed in rejected corneal grafts (RCGs). METHODS: Descemet membrane (DM), endothelium, and retrocorneal membranes make up the total En/DM thickness. These layers are not differentiable by high-definition optical coherence tomography; therefore, the source of thickening is unclear from an in vivo perspective. A retrospective ex vivo study (from September 2015 to December 2015) was conducted to measure the thicknesses of DM, endothelium, and retrocorneal membrane in 54 corneal specimens (31 RCGs and 23 controls) using light microscopy. Controls were globes with posterior melanoma without corneal involvement. RESULTS: There were 54 corneas examined ex vivo with mean age 58.1 ± 12.2 in controls and 51.7 ± 27.9 years in RCGs. The ex vivo study uncovered the histopathological mechanism of En/DM thickening to be secondary to significant thickening (P < 0.001) of DM (6.5 ± 2.4 µm) in RCGs compared with controls (3.9 ± 1.5 µm). CONCLUSIONS: Our ex vivo study shows that DM is responsible for thickening of the En/DM in RCGs observed in vivo by high-definition optical coherence tomography and not the endothelium or retrocorneal membrane.